A study on relation between Emotional Intelligence and Leadership

1. Ask Yourself: Are
You A Perfect
Leader?
ANUJ SUNEJA

2. INTRODUCTION
 While leadership has been a topic of interest since the dawn of man, leadership and
management studies were taken up in earnest in the early 20th century.
 This chronicles a kind of evolution in leadership behaviour studies from the traits of effective
leaders to follower-centered leadership theories proposed in the late-20th, early 21st century.
 With the growing start-up culture in India, an exponentially growing economy, Don’t you
think there is a need to revive and revise our concepts on Leadership (especially in the
context of Organization)??…

3. Leadership
 For decades, leadership theories have been the source of numerous studies. In reality as well as in
practice, many have tried to define what allows authentic leaders to stand apart from the mass!
 Leadership is the art of influencing others to their maximum performance to accomplish any task,
objective or project. (Cohen, 1990: 9)
 Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to
do it.– Dwight D. Eisenhower
 "Leaders are individuals who establish direction for a working group of individuals
who gain commitment form these group of members to this direction and who then
motivate these members to achieve the direction's outcomes.”
- Conger, J.A. ‘Learning to Lead’ San Francisco: Jossey-Bass (1992, p18)

4. Types of Leadership
Kurt Lewin and colleagues did leadership decision experiments in 1939 and
identified three different styles of leadership, in particular around decision-
making.
Autocratic
In the autocratic style, the leader takes decisions without consulting with others. The
decision is made without any form of consultation. In Lewin's experiments, he found
that this caused the most level of discontent.
Democratic
In the democratic style, the leader involves the people in the decision-making,
although the process for the final decision may vary from the leader having the final
say to them facilitating consensus in the group.
Laissez-Faire
The laissez-faire style is to minimize the leader's involvement in decision-making, and
hence allowing people to make their own decisions, although they may still be
responsible for the outcome.

5. Emotional Intelligence
 Emotional Intelligence (EQ or EI) is a term created by two researchers – Peter Salavoy and John
Mayer – and popularized by Dan Goleman in his 1996 book of the same name.
 "Emotional intelligence is the ability to perceive emotions, to access and generate emotions so as to
assist thought, to understand emotions and emotional knowledge, and to reflectively regulate emotions
so as to promote emotional and intellectual growth."- Mayer & Salovey, 1997
 Emotional intelligence is the ability to identify and manage your own emotions and the emotions of
others. It is generally said to include three skills:

6. 1. Emotional awareness, including the ability to identify your own emotions and those of others;
2. The ability to harness emotions and apply them to tasks like thinking and problems solving;
3. The ability to manage emotions, including the ability to regulate your own emotions, and the
ability to cheer up or calm down another person

7. Dimensions of EI/ EQ
 The Five Components of Emotional Intelligence (as given by Daniel Goleman)
 Self-awareness. The ability to recognize and understand personal moods and emotions and drives,
as well as their effect on others.
 Self-regulation. The ability to control or redirect disruptive impulses and moods, and the propensity
to suspend judgment and to think before acting. Hallmarks include trustworthiness and integrity;
comfort with ambiguity; and openness to change.
 Internal motivation. A passion to work for internal reasons that go beyond money and status -
which are external rewards, - such as an inner vision of what is important in life, a joy in doing
something, curiosity in learning, a flow that comes with being immersed in an activity.
 Empathy. The ability to understand the emotional makeup of other people. A skill in treating people
according to their emotional reactions. Hallmarks include expertise in building and retaining talent,
cross-cultural sensitivity, and service to clients and customers.
 Social skills. Proficiency in managing relationships and building networks, and an ability to find
common ground and build rapport. Hallmarks of social skills include effectiveness in leading change,
persuasiveness, and expertise building and leading teams.

8. Objectives
After the literature review the following objectives were formulated
 To study the relation between leadership styles and emotional intelligence.
 To explore the trends of leadership styles and leadership differences among
male and female managers in the already established MNC culture companies.
 To get an insight of the organisations so as to conduct further studies on their
organisational culture.

9. METHOD
 Participants: The sample size was (N=58) and data was collected from the top and middle level
management people of Big companies like Reliance, Indian Oil etc.
 Tools Used:
a. Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire(EIQ)-The Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire was
developed in 1995 and modified by Suzzane Farmer in 2013 in the UT SOUTHWESTERN Medical
Centre. It is a 2 domain 30 item questionnaire based on a 5 point Likert scale.
b. Leadership Styles Questionnaire- The LSQ was developed by Blake and Mountan and was
republished by Sage Publication in 2014. This is an 18 item scale based on a 5 point Likert scale
and has 3 Dimensions.
c. A semi structured interview

10. Result
Variables Authoritative Democratic Laissez-Faire Self
Awareness
Self
Management
Authoritative 1 .229 .297 .360* .048
Democratic 1 -.078 .482** .372*
Laissez-Faire 1 -.069 .177
Self
Awareness
1 .165
Self
Management
1
Person’s product moment r was calculated among the variables. Three
Dimensions of Leadership and 2 dimensions of Emotional Intelligence
were used in the correlational analysis.

11. Gender Mean For difference in
leadership
Mean For Self
Awareness
Mean for Self
Management
Male 10.088 31.36 29.28
Female 10.569 33.54 31.26

12. Discussion
 A positive and strong correlation is observed between Authoritative Leadership style and Self
awareness dimension of Emotional Intelligence (r=.360;p<0.05) and a very highly significant
correlation emerges when we consider the Democratically Dominant or ruled managers,
where we witness a positive correlation with both the dimensions of Emotiona intelligence i.e
Self Awareness and Self Management (ra=.482 and rm=.372, pa<0.01 and pm<0.05).
 No significant relation was discerned for Laissez Faire type of Leadership and Emotional
Intelligence.
 While exploring the gender differences it was concluded that Women had an overall higher
mean for Emotional Intelligence as a whole and also for its individual dimensions.

13. Conclusion
 The present study shows a positive and strong correlation between Authoritative Leadership
and Self Awareness.
 The study also portrays a positive and significant correltion between Democratic Leadership
and Emotional Intelligence as a whole.
 We can also conclude that in the Top and middle level management Women seem to have a
higher Emotional Intelligence and thus Emotional Quotient as compared to their male
counterparts.

14. THANK YOU